UAV Platforms

UAV Platforms

As well as providing aerial services we are also working to provide customers with small UAV platforms for their own use. By using widely available high-end RC hobby components we are able to create aircraft with performance to match more expensive solutions at a fraction of their cost.

We’re currently still in development, but if you’re interested in working with us and have a need for a high-performance, low-cost custom platform, please get in touch! We will be further perfecting and testing our platforms over the coming year before offering the option of some standardized platforms for a wider audience as well as custom engineered solutions matched to customers’ specific needs.

Some general features of Skymount UAVs:

Multi-rotor and Fixed-Wing platforms at a range of sizes and capabilities

Multi-rotor flight time up to 45 minutes, or payloads of 3+kg. Quad, Hex and Octa configurations. Single or dual operator

Fixed-wing flight time up to 90 minutes or more

Low cost: using carefully selected high-end RC components

Fully modular: standardized RC components can be swapped between different platforms, and are cheaply and easily replaced or upgraded

Graphical point and click Ground Control Station software for flight planning and in-flight monitoring

Multiple failsafe modes in the event of radio link loss, low battery, etc

Multiple flight modes for different styles and mixes of automated and manual control

Flights are logged for post-flight analysis, including viewing the flight path in Google Earth

Camera triggering at regular intervals, at waypoints or manually operated

Open-source software: if you need to modify the behaviour or integrate with other systems you can. All the source code for the flight controller, Ground Control Station and radios is freely available to modify or add on to. Not a mysterious and closed black-box, no dead-ends!

The caveat of all this performance at a lower cost point is that the operators need some experience with RC flying. Over time automated launch and recovery systems and tablet driven interfaces will be available but at this point some manual flying abilities are required, and an interest in the technology helps a lot!